The 24-year-old has been a regular off the bench this season but had not started a game since August, and he aims to keep his spot for today’s Ladbrokes Premiership game at Partick Thistle with Crawford doubtful.

“There’s good strength and depth in the squad,” he said. “I played the first couple of games and then got dropped because we weren’t getting the results we wanted.

“There’s competition in every position. The boys came in and did well. They have been flying recently so it’s all about being patient.

“It’s not nice to see one of your team-mates going down injured but Ali has gone down and I’ve got the call, and we have gone on to get a positive result.

“It was a good game to be involved in. Even when we went down to ten men and lost the goal, I felt we were the better team and we showed good character to come back and get something from the game. So hopefully we just take this into the next game and hopefully I’m starting.”

Longridge was raring to go when he got his early chance last Saturday. “I’ve been feeling ready for a while, I’ve always felt ready even when I got dropped,” he said. “I have always prepared myself the same way if I was starting or being sub. I’ve always been fully focused for when I got called upon. Saturday it happened so I was delighted to get a chunk of game time.”

Partick are hopeful that midfielder Stuart Bannigan and forward Mathias Pogba will recover from hamstring strains in time. Abdul Osman is suspended but Mustapha Dumbuya has recovered from the illness that forced him out of last week’s victory over St Johnstone. Christie Elliott (back) is a long-term absentee.